Lake Fork is one of those places that when I was a little kid I thought ... someday I'm gonna go there. I've been a few times now and it still has me intrigued. All this covid crap cancelled The Legend of Lake Fork Tournament this past week but it didn't cancel the deposit on our house booking so my buddy and I still loaded up and went. We didn't have a tournament to fish but we were going to hit it hard.
We left late Wednesday night and caught a few hours of sleep in the parking lot at the boat ramp. We couldn't check in to our rent house till Thursday afternoon and didn't want to waste a day. That topwater bite is gonna happen early and we wanted to be there. I don't like sleeping in the truck but it's worth it for a good fish!
That sunrise made it worth it.
The first fish of the trip. It took about 5 casts. It wasn't a giant but it was good to see one come in the boat.
The Yellow Magic is properly named. We killed them all weekend long on it. It didn't matter the time of day, it still worked and we kept chunking them. My Yellow Magic survived the trip but needs a new paint job. I think I'm going to retire it and break out a new one. It did its job.
If you've been to Fork you know what an over is. If you haven't, it's a fish that's over the 16-24 inch slot limit. I'm not saying it's a big deal to everyone but it is to me and my buddies. Catching an over is something that you all start the week dreaming of. The buddy I was fishing with has caught a million good fish, some double digit whoppers and knows Lake Fork like his home lake. He's never caught an over. He's caught several 23.75 inch fish but never broke that 24 inch mark. I did though... on the first morning. I threw my creature bait to a little cut, one hop and boom ... drag was being pulled. She tail danced once and we knew we had something good on the line. We started yelling when she hit the bottom of the net. She was pretty spawned out and only weighed 7.5 but she was 24 inches long and had a huge frame. I'd have liked to have seen her prior to the spawn or in a week or 2 when she had fattened back up on some shad but she was mine and I was happy to have her. Trip made 6 hours into it. I even took a picture of the plastic that did it for me cause I'm that kind of guy. We took some pictures with her, showed her off to our other buddies and then let her go to grow. I miss her already.
I'll spare you the details on all the fish cause we caught a lot of them. There's just something about fishing in a place that has a chance to put out a giant that makes you want to keep fishing. Plenty of 3 and 4 pound fish keep you interested and a 5 sprinkled in just to get the heart rate up. We hit it hard for 3 days and only took a break to catch some monster crappie once. I didn't take pictures of them cause it was pouring but trust me, bass aren't the only fish that grow big in Fork.
Sunrise on the lake is always something to see, I've never been disappointed in one.
The shad spawn was trying to kick off and herons were hitting them real hard on the banks. If you could find the birds, you could find the fish.
Name that duck??
Cruising back home. You don't spend a lot of time at top speed on this lake if you aren't in the boat lane.
No one ever has enough plastics, me included.
Pretty good trip all the way around. Lot's of fish, lots of wildlife and only one bad storm that we had to ride out underneath a bridge. Old timers say it isn't what it once was and that may be right but it's still something. I'll be back again, you can bet on that!
